Love Before Graduation

The door creaked softly.

There was water outside, silence inside. And through that silence, two shadows entered—wet, unkempt, laughing like they owned the world. Their clothes clung to their bodies, hair dripping water onto the floor. Wet footprints stained the floor like blurred ink.

Riyan and Tenzin.

I blinked and recognized them, like one recognizes a forgotten desire that's returned by mistake. Some old irritation stirred inside me—maybe leftover from a broken sleep or a book I never finished—but the laughter on their soaked faces poked holes through it.

They were drenched but careless. As if the rain hadn't touched them at all, or like the world's worst troubles had already dropped off their schoolbags and splashed onto the floor.

I hadn't even smiled yet, and something had already changed.

Heavy, slow footsteps came from behind. A shadow moved.

And then he entered.

Aarin.

He wasn't just a name. He was a cold breath slipping down your neck. A fragment of time lodged inside your heartbeat, refusing to move.

He didn't look like he had been caught in the rain—he looked like he was the rain.

His white shirt stuck to his body like some cheap poet's fantasy. His wet hair fell messily over his forehead, and droplets of water traced his sharp jaw as they slid down. And his eyes? They didn't just look—they consumed. He met my gaze for just a second—but that second devoured my entire evening.

He didn't speak, yet the silence around him was louder than anyone else's voice. He stood there—a still from a film you keep rewinding. And I kept watching, like watching was the only thing I could do.

"Why is he here?" my heart whispered.

Now?

Why now?

But I didn't want the answer. I just wanted to look at him. Fully awake, fully lost.

And then that memory hit me.

That day.

The bus stop.

The rain.

And that crooked little smile he'd given me under the leaking tin roof. My heart had jumped that day, like a child splashing into a puddle without a care.

"That day... when we met for the first time under that broken shade. I was drenched. But inside me, something was burning. Even now, that same feeling has returned." 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

I clutched the strap of my bag—like holding onto an old letter you fold and keep hidden in your pocket.

He still looked the same—unreasonably beautiful.

And I...

I was back there again.

All three of them came in, shaking water off themselves like mischievous cats caught in a storm.

I folded my arms and raised my eyebrows—like I had something to say, but I said something else entirely:

"Why did you three even come out in this rain?" I asked, annoyed—or at least pretending to be. Truthfully, I wanted to know more than anything.

Tenzin—always the dramatist, always the flirt, like he'd walked right out of some romance manga—smiled and said:

"Sometimes, it's necessary to walk through a storm... if there's something waiting on the other side that's more beautiful than sunshine."

Oh God. I rolled my eyes, but the corner of my lips couldn't help curling into a smile.

"Is that so?" I replied sweetly, leaning in just a little. "Then I guess walking through the rain for me must've been quite something."

Riyan choked on his breath. Tenzin grinned even wider—clearly enjoying the game.

But I wasn't really in the game.

My attention was somewhere else.

Him.

Aarin.

Standing at the back, and yet somehow always in front. His shirt had begun to dry now, but droplets still clung to his lashes. He never smiled. Maybe on purpose.

And then he spoke.

"I'm joining tuition from today."

Just that.

His voice was quiet, slow. Like he wasn't making a big announcement—but my heart sure did.

My pulse raced. And I got angry—at myself.

I shook my head gently, pretending to follow Tenzin's rambling. But the room had already changed for me.

Because from now on...

This was going to be way too distracting.

Way too much.